READ Gen. 22:1-19

GOD TESTS US
Sometime later, God tested Abraham (1)
As the story unfolds, this seems like an understatement. Here’s a test that would shake any parent to the core of their beings. It stretches our capacity to even imagine. To think God could ask such a thing can strike cold fear to one’s heart. The command of God makes the commitment asked for starkly clear:
"Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
                                                                                                                                               (Gen 22:2)
This is no cake walk and it is not intended to be. This is meant to bring Abraham’s faith to the very edge.

But testing is necessary to strengthen, confirm, and deepen faith. The purpose of testing is not to trip us up. Satan may tempt us to bring out the evil in our hearts. But God never tempts, only tests. He tests to bring out the best, the good in us, to call us to reach a higher plane. For instance, when we are tested in a physical activity such as a race or game, we are called upon to reach our limit. Often that limit is stretched beyond what we believed we were capable of, and as a result, we are stronger than before. As a result, we are more confident.  God, in His perfect love and wisdom, tests us almost to the breaking point in order to cause us to reach deep, draw upon latent powers, trusting God at levels we haven’t before– resulting in a stronger faith.

It is through testing we come to understand more of our hearts. Jer. 17:9 says that
            the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
We do not know ourselves. Pascal in his Pensees (1670) writes,
“We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.”         
But, in times of testing, our hidden motivations are often revealed. In the fire of the testing we wrestle through to the core issues. I like the way my brother asks some of these in The Way of Jesus:
“Does God serve us or do we serve God? Do we require a God that we can fully understand and control or are we willing to be obedient to what we do not understand and could never control? Is God a mystery of goodness whom we embrace and trust, or is God a formula for getting the most out of life on our terms?”

This test reaches Abraham at the most vulnerable part of his life. He has waited for 25 years for the promised child, Isaac. He has been enjoying this miracle-child as he has grown. Abraham named him Isaac, which means laughter. This test strikes at the source of joy for Abraham and Sarah. Everything depends now upon this one life– the great nation, people without number that God has promised. Now, in the midst of enjoying the fruit of the promise fulfilled, Abraham is commanded to surrender it all upon an altar of sacrifice. This makes no sense to our human thinking. Why give something that is a direct fulfillment of God’s will and then take it away?

We have to understand this story in the context of that day. Remember, Abraham comes out of a pagan culture and is gradually getting to know the true God. All of God’s ways and will are not revealed at once. Just as we’ve seen the names for God multiplying with increased understand-ing, so Abraham is on a journey of discovery about what it means to follow. Child sacrifice was a common religious practice of that day with the Canaanites among whom he lived. So, Abraham had no way of knowing that this new God whom he was following, Who had called him out of idolatry, would not also require such an act of sacrifice. God is consistent, perfect, and cannot change His mind. So God knows there will be no child sacrifice and has never wanted that. But because Abraham does not know this, it makes this the supreme test of trusting God and letting go of that which is most precious to him. Now, we have God’s Word in Scripture, and know we are never to go against what God has already revealed there to us of His will.

 

GOD PREPARES US
The chapter begins, Some time later God tested Abraham... What is happening here is the graduation exam of 35-40 years on this journey of faith. There have been successes and failures. But he has been following the call of God. From faraway Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and finally to the promised land. He’s built altars and worshiped at Shechem, Bethel, and Hebron. At each altar he learns a little more about the command, the promise, and the commitment. He seems to have gotten off track and lost faith in his detour to Egypt. But then he regains his footing and is generous to the greed of Lot– holding possessions lightly, knowing it all belongs to the Lord. In an act of graciousness and forgiveness he delivers Lot– first in battle and finally through intercession. Faith falters as he tries to use human means to achieve God’s ends with Hagar and Ishmael. But he continues on, growing in his understanding of God and his ability to trust God in all things.

Now, we stand in awe of the faith Abraham shows. Heb 11:17-19 gives us insight:
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

While this test breaks into Abraham’s life suddenly, probably just when he thinks he’s got it made, all that has gone on previously has been preparing him. So it is with us. The announce-ment of a sudden death or a diagnosis of cancer may surprise us and rock our foundations. But know that for those following God, God has been carefully weaving the resources we need for those times into us through what He’s been taking us through previously. Each small test and each small victory strengthens us for the bigger ones.

THE OBEDIENCE
Through the years, Abraham had learned the voice of God well. Now, in the night he hears that familiar voice call his name, “Abraham!” And Abraham answers as a servant would, “Here I am.” These words will later be repeated by Moses and Samuel in response to God’s call. Then comes the command to do the unthinkable thing– sacrifice his only son.

But early the next morning, Abraham begins this perilous journey. There is no delay. It sounds like he himself cuts the firewood for the burnt offering– a task too close to his heart to leave to another. It is a journey of 50-60 mi. taking three days. Imagine the heaviness of Abraham’s heart with every step bringing him to the dreaded conclusion. This is Abraham’s Via Dolorossa. The burden of secrecy lies heavy with no one to share the load, for only he knows the true nature of the journey. The third day, as they arrive in the region of Moriah, God indicates to Abraham the mountain whose summit he is to ascend to sacrifice Isaac. Now he leaves behind the servants and the donkey. He loads the wood for the sacrifice on Isaac’s back.

Then, with a question that must have stabbed Abraham’s heart, Isaac asks where the lamb is for the burnt offering. Abraham answered, probably not knowing his answer was prophecy, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” From this question we know that Isaac understands the drill. He has accompanied his father to other altars of sacrifice. So Abraham has been including his son in worship, teaching him.

Now as they arrive at the place, I imagine the old man, Abraham slowly, deliberately gathering stones for an altar– stretching the time out as long as possible. Then finally, the moment of truth. Finally, with hugs, tears, and kisses, Isaac willingly submits to his father’s binding his hands and feet and laying him on the pile of wood. Then, as Abraham raises the knife to kill his son, the Lord speaks again. Abraham answers with the same, willing servant words with which he began this terrible journey, “Here I am.” And, the Lord does provide the lamb.

But it is all a foreshadowing of God’s provision in His only Son. The author of Chronicles (2 Chron. 3:1) identifies this place as the temple mount in Jerusalem– the rock where the blood of the temple sacrifices was poured out. Today it is covered by the Dome of the Rock, one of Islam’s mosques. With the building of the temple and until the coming of Christ, this was the place of the Lord’s provision for offerings for sin. On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided (22:14). With Christ’s coming, the ultimate provision is made for our salvation. The three day journey was a journey of death for Abraham– corresponding to the three days Jesus’ body lay in the tomb. As Isaac carried the wood on his back up the mountain, so our Lord carried his cross. And, dying on the cross in another area of that same mountain, He was our substitute, taking the death we deserve so that we might live. The third day, Isaac was given back in a type of resurrection– as is Jesus. John the Baptist announces Jesus with words of unmistakable significance to any Jew, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus is our lamb, the sacrifice that removes from us the penalty of our sins so that we may live new lives in resurrection power.

The narrow passage of testing now opens in to the vast openness of God’s blessing with God’s commendation, “...all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (18). The testings we pass with our obedience bring freedom and blessing– not just to our lives, but to others as well.
CONCLUSION
I recently read about Dr. Hilary Koprowski, a scientist at the forefront of the search for a polio vaccine in the 1940's. This vaccine used a live virus that was rendered non-virulent instead of the killed viruses used later by Jonas Salk. In many ways it was superior. Koprowski and his assistant had completed animal testing. But, before testing it on other humans, he felt he must first test it on himself. So, late one winter afternoon in 1948, he and his assistant whipped up a “polio cocktail” to see if their immunization worked in humans. They each drained their small glass beakers, tilting their heads back to fully drain the liquid. They agreed it tasted a lot like cod-liver oil. “Have another?” asked his assistant. “Better not,” Koprowski replied. “I’m driving.”

There comes that moment of truth when we are called to drain the cup, trusting the promise we hold to. What we’ve learned to believe must now be put into practice in a trust that we stake everything on.  Jesus drank that cup in the Garden of Gethsemane for all of us. And in that same prayer, he summarized the whole spirit of this event in Abraham’s life, “Not my will but Thy will be done” (Lk. 22:40).

As I’ve been thinking about this sermon, there’s a gospel song I remember we used to sing when I was growing up, “Is your all on the altar?” It summarizes the spiritual truth here of total surrender, holding back nothing from obeying the Lord. Elisha Hoffman was a Presbyterian pastor. He wrote the more familiar hymns, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” and “I Must Tell Jesus.” He wrote these words in 1905 to the hymn we’re going to sing:
            “You have longed for sweet peace,
              And for faith to increase,
              And have earnestly, fervently prayed;
              But you cannot have rest,
              Or be perfectly blest,
              Until all on the altar is laid.”

Giving up everything to the Lord, laying it all on the altar is the path to freedom, peace, and joy in the Lord. Our lack of peace and freedom in Christ can often be traced back to something precious we cling to, our “Isaac.” This morning, during communion, lay whatever that is on the altar. Receive the promise of new life, resurrection life through Christ, our Substitute, our Lamb.

 

 

 

 

Robust Faith – Sermons on Abraham
VIII. “Giving it All”
Read Genesis 22:1-19
1. Was there something in this sermon you found particularly helpful or meaningful that you’d like to share with the group?

2. Think of a time when you felt God was asking you to do a very hard thing.  What happened?  Share with the group.

3.  Abraham had a lot of ups and downs in his faith walk.  Sometimes we are on “spiritual mountains” and other times fall flat on our faces.  What things could help us to be steadier in our faith?  List several.  These scriptures may help you with some answers:  Heb. 10:22-25, Matt. 4:4 & 10, James 1:22, 5:15.

4. Verse 1 says God tested Abraham.  Can tests be helpful?  In what way?  Read Psalm 26:2 and Psalm 139:23-24, and James 1:12 and discuss.

5. Read Rom. 5:1-5.  Think about the progression in vs. 3-5 and write your own definition:
                  perseverance____________________________
                  character________________________________
                  hope___________________________________
            What is the end result (vs. 5)?  Have you found that          true?  Explain.

 

6.  Read Mark 1:9-13.
“The Spirit immediately drove Him [Jesus]  into the  wilderness”  (vs.12, RSV).  While God doesn’t tempt us, can temptation be useful in our spiritual growth? Explain.

 

1 Cor. 10: 13,  “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

7. Abraham was asked to do something that made no sense to his understanding.  Have you ever had that experience with God?  Explain.

 

8. Has there been a time when you put your all on the altar?  What was that like and what was the result for you?

            For personal reflection.  Is there something or      someone you need to surrender     to the Lord (your             “Isaac”)?